Merry Christmas - New Releases Announcement

[tomasina]

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

Thanks to everyone that provided such valuable feedback on our recently released Actions and Modifiers section. It is your feedback that allows us to create a great product.

On Christmas Eve we will be posting our update to this section, which will include the edits we've made based on the feedback we've received on the list.

As if this is not enough, we will also be releasing the Supplemental Rules and Clarifications section! The new rules in this section will cover running goons and henchmen, poisons and gasses, and a system for controlling large armies of creatures. But that is not all... you will also get new Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges.

We hope that you enjoy our little Christmas present to you all, and we are already looking forward to your feedback, questions, and suggestions.

Have a Merry Christmas, and keep an eye on this forum and the official site for the release of the above sections.

Tomasina

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

[malice]

WOOT

[Kaimontfendo]

COOLS!!!! Huzzah for supplemental rules and clarifications!!!!!

Sorry for that overly energetic reaction. (Not really.) Also, I have a few questions. For example, Are there plans to include rules for sperating a symbiote from its host, or is that probably going to wait until a GM section? How many sections are left, anyway? Oh, and one of the things that always bothered me is the lack of any pricing guidelines for poisoned weapons, knockout gas and such. Any chance of fixing that for us? It would be helpful, especially considering Kraven's write-up lists various toxins as equipment.

[Rushlock]

Im very interested to see the options for controlling large groups of NPCs

Great work as always guys!

[Neros]

YA!! We GMs just love control.... And controlling many NPCs at once, is sure control

[tomasina]

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

Thanks for the positive comments, we are glad that you are all excited to see what we have been working on.

kaimontfendo said:

Sorry for that overly energetic reaction. (Not really.) Also, I have a few questions. For example, Are there plans to include rules for sperating a symbiote from its host, or is that probably going to wait until a GM section? How many sections are left, anyway? Oh, and one of the things that always bothered me is the lack of any pricing guidelines for poisoned weapons, knockout gas and such. Any chance of fixing that for us? It would be helpful, especially considering Kraven's write-up lists various toxins as equipment.

Hey, we appreciate your enthusiasm! Now, in answer to your questions...

1) There are no plans to include rules for separating a symbiote from its host in either section, though there are rules regarding slaying a vampire, which could feasibly be adapted toward such purposes....

2) There are still 6 sections left to be released. They are:

The cover pages and table of contents (which we still have not released) The Gamesmaster Section (including the long awaited Adventure Generator, created by the original Game writers) The Adventure Briefings: (Featuring Maps and Details on 5 different NYC locations) The Adventure: (entitled "Something Sinister This Way Comes") The Appendix (Appendixes A-E) And, finally the back cover.

3) There are still no pricing guidelines for creating poisons or toxins in a general sense. However, in Appendix C, we have listed examples of pricing for the weapons used by specific heroes and villains, (and yes, Kraven's potions ARE included as well). The Poisons and Gasses topic in the Supplementary Rules discusses how you can run poison coated weapons, and poison gasses in your own campaign, and offers ideas on how to create a variety of poisonous effects. We figured this was an important topic, since so many of the characters we chose to highlight utilize these kinds of weapons, so we think you'll find the information useful and informative.

Thanks again for the support, and we hope you like what you are about to get.

Merry Christmas

Tomasina

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

[Kaimontfendo]

A decent chunk of what I read in the new section confuses me. However, I think re-reading it a few times will be helpful.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, there are just a few things I want to point out.

1. An example of a poison's possible effect reads

Causes paralysis or knocks the target for a preset duration.

I suggest fixing that up a bit. I would change it to "Causes paralysis or unconsciousness for a preset duration"

2. On the second page of the section (numbered page 50) at the start of a new paragraph, about 5 lines down, it reads

You must also place at least at least 1 stone into your own Intelligence.

(my emphasis added)
I suggest changing that to "You must also place a minimum of 1 stone into your own Intelligence." That should avoid majorly reformtting the paragraph.

As for the new advantages, disadvantages, and challenges, I don't know just how to feel about them. I recall seeing a much more expensive version of Hunt/Seek somewhere on the boards earlier, but it also didn't require keeping a stone in the attack. I guess that balances out. Control Trajectories doesn't really seem to be worth a +3, since not being able to see around corners generally makes it difficult to attack at all. I dunno. It's just a lot to look at and offer feedback on so soon.

[tomasina]

Sorry, posted this in the wrong area at first...

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

We're sorry that you're sounding a little disappointed upon receiving those rules, but we're hoping that reviewing them a few times, will help clear up some of your questions. Your ideas for making our points clearer in those 2 sentences that you cited were definitely helpful and we will incorporate those into our update of that section. (And sorry for that damn typo!)

As for pricing on that Control Trajectories option, you might be thinking of a Boomerang, which would be penalized for attacking around a corner. However, that's not the effect that this advantage was intending to simulate. I believe the whole point of the Control Directories Option was that your character is NOT penalized in any way for attacking around corners because it does not require line of site. This attack can just "find" the target (which is similar, but not quite the same as Hunt/Seek which attacks the target every turn, but still requires line of sight.)

Thanks as always for the quick review, we always appreciate your input.

Tomasina

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

[Kaimontfendo]

So, let me see if I've got this right... the Control Trajectories advantage allows for attacks around corners, even if you can't see the target?!?! For example, if Dagger hears someone getting mugged in an alley, she can put 4 stones into Living Light Daggers, another 4 into Ranged Combat, and hit the thug with an 8-stone attack, even though she never actually saw him? Is that correct? Because that sounds like it would easily be worth a +2, and pricing it at +3 helps limit abuse. (However, I think I'd prefer area effect most of the time, but maybe that's just me.)

I noticed that under the Pseudo-Vampire challenge, it mentions "suffers 1 white stone of Health per Panel while exposed to direct sunlight and religious symbols." I thought Blade was a Pseudo-Vampire, but was still the DAYwalker. Also, aren't they vulnerable to garlic, or is that just regular Marvel Vampires? I'm sorry. I just really know virually nothing about Marvel Vampires, especially when thay throw in "Pseudo-Vampires" and all that. It's actually rather difficult to find information about standard Marvel Vampires so I am requesting from anyone around here who knows.

Also, I'm not seeing much use for the disadvantage "Only affects living material" I'm imagining a Force Field that doesn't stop most ranged attacks because they don't contain any living material. "I just got a ninja star in my lower torso, but at least it won't get infected, because my force field stopped any bacteria that may have been on it!" I understand that this was invented for Carrion's Telekenesis, but trying to apply it to almost any other acton doesn't seem to work nearly as well. I suppose it could be applied to most attacks, but still...

I'm not really sure how or when I'll use most of these new advantages, disadvantages, and challenges, but it's good to have them on hand for when an idea begins to form itself.

Oh, and I love Corrosive Touch now. It is quite possibly my new favorite action. (ahead of Energy Absoption and Nerve Punch) I've already built a character who has it, (also built a character with Nerve Punch, and no, I didn't build a character with both) and thought of another concept that would also use it. And I need to build more of them, just so I can use all the options!

[GhostKnight]

"Only affects living material": imagine a convenient bomb that just ends life and leaves the computers, buildings and everything non-organic usable. You may never destroy an armor but you can area effect force blast a mob without damaging your institute

[Kaimontfendo]

Nigromante, I may be mistaken, but I believe that sounds like a Neutron Bomb. I have little difficultly imagining a robot with an area attack like that. Sure, it'd wipe out all life in Manhattan, but what would the unaffeted robot care? It's problematic. It may work alright for many things, but combined with an area effect, it's more a benefit that a drawback. I suppose this is just one example of why GM approval is so important.

Also, I think it could be interesting to apply to Teleportation, but for that it would have to be worth more than 1 level discount, because you'd never have clothes or items after teleporting (unless you have living clothes or equipment). However, it would still be useful as a last resort means of escape.

[GhostKnight]

Sounds to me like the time travel in the Terminator movies.

You could use it in Inventing like a... a... a mad scientist who can only invent bio-organic things (maybe a symbiote )

Maybe you could "play" it and do a "charge living tissue" action (quite deadly if you ask me)

Could also be used in drain energy (I can't drain the damn robot!!!!)

One that comes to mind is invisibility (the char should have to strip to be trutly invisible [see Ghost in the shell first movie])

Well, I'm gonna sleep...

[Kaimontfendo]

So that's how they manage to afford an expensive thing like time travel. Just attach a disadvantage or two onto it, and bring the price down to a reasonable level.

One of the problems I think we've shown with this is that a number of actions never actually state who and/or what they work against. I don't recall the book ever stating that Robots are immune to Telepathy, but it just makes good sense. Nothing I can think of says Drain Energy doesn't work against Powered Armor, but that doesn't mean it should. Charge Object is just another one of these. It makes no mention of charging an object and running away from it, although Gambit certainly has the option to do that. And it never states that it cannot be used to charge a person's flesh, which Gambit has been able to do sometimes if I remember correctly. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that most actions are not clearly defined enough. How are you supposed to apply a "only affects living material" disadvantage when many things have it built-in already, or maybe they don't, but the book doesn't say? (At least Nerve Punch is clear about this. It doesn't work against tech. At best, it might work like regular Close Combat, without 2x damage or stun. I guess you'd still get the ignore called shot sit-mods part of it, but now I'm getting off the subject.)

[tomasina]

kaimontfendo said:

So, let me see if I've got this right... the Control Trajectories advantage allows for attacks around corners, even if you can't see the target?!?! For example, if Dagger hears someone getting mugged in an alley, she can put 4 stones into Living Light Daggers, another 4 into Ranged Combat, and hit the thug with an 8-stone attack, even though she never actually saw him? Is that correct? Because that sounds like it would easily be worth a +2, and pricing it at +3 helps limit abuse. (However, I think I'd prefer area effect most of the time, but maybe that's just me.)

I noticed that under the Pseudo-Vampire challenge, it mentions "suffers 1 white stone of Health per Panel while exposed to direct sunlight and religious symbols." I thought Blade was a Pseudo-Vampire, but was still the DAYwalker. Also, aren't they vulnerable to garlic, or is that just regular Marvel Vampires? I'm sorry. I just really know virually nothing about Marvel Vampires, especially when thay throw in "Pseudo-Vampires" and all that. It's actually rather difficult to find information about standard Marvel Vampires so I am requesting from anyone around here who knows.

Also, I'm not seeing much use for the disadvantage "Only affects living material" I'm imagining a Force Field that doesn't stop most ranged attacks because they don't contain any living material. "I just got a ninja star in my lower torso, but at least it won't get infected, because my force field stopped any bacteria that may have been on it!" I understand that this was invented for Carrion's Telekenesis, but trying to apply it to almost any other acton doesn't seem to work nearly as well. I suppose it could be applied to most attacks, but still...

I'm not really sure how or when I'll use most of these new advantages, disadvantages, and challenges, but it's good to have them on hand for when an idea begins to form itself.

Oh, and I love Corrosive Touch now. It is quite possibly my new favorite action. (ahead of Energy Absoption and Nerve Punch) I've already built a character who has it, (also built a character with Nerve Punch, and no, I didn't build a character with both) and thought of another concept that would also use it. And I need to build more of them, just so I can use all the options!

Control Trajectories: You've got it! Well, sort of... Dagger would probably need to have a basic idea of who she's aiming at first. In other words, she would probably need to actually see the target at some point BEFORE she attacks. But once she's seen the target, yes, if he tries to run away, hide around corners, etc. she would be able to target that opponent. Also, if he tries to mug someone or use someone as a hostage AFTER he's been spotted, the GM might apply a situational modifier, due to the fact that the daggers could accidentally hit the innocent bystander instead! It's still a powerful advantage, but it does have its limitations, which is why it's priced at +2.

Blade: You are correct, though it is not his status as a "Pseudo Vampire" that gives him the ability to walk in daylight. While our description mentions that he has "all the powers of a vampire... but none of their weakness," in our abbreviated history we neglected to highlight the fact that it was only after a bite from Morbius that he became a "Daywalker" making him immune to the things that normally affect a vampire (though he still retains the bloodlust). "Normal" pseudo vampires are neither human,
nor vampire. They have human traits, with all of a vampire's weaknesses.

Only affects living materials: In your force field example, this would be a forcefield that would block all "fist" attacks, but not weapons. In a non-combat situation, you could use this to create a force wall that would allow you to throw an object (like a bomb) through, that would contain the explosion, or to block living opponents from gaining access to an object or doorway that you wish to protect. (Of course the disadvantage remains that the force field usually only functions more like a barrier than it does a protective defense, and it's entirely ineffective against robotic opponents.) A couple more examples of Actions that this limitation could apply to: Energy Blast (Hurts people, but you could never use it blast open a door), Invisibility: You can hide yourself, but you have to take off your clothes (like the old invisible man movies), and you can never hide objects.

And hey! We're really glad that you have come to love that Corrosive Touch now! We happen think it's pretty cool too!

Tomasina